Christmas in Sarajevo

The Howards were lucky enough to have several Christmas events this year.  First, Geoff and I attended an "End of the World" party on Friday, the 21st.  It was held at our friends, the Brinkleys' house, and there were guests from several embassies there.  We had a great time mingling, and I even got to raid the 15-year-old's bookcase to stock up on some YA reading.

The next day was our big Christmas dinner at the home of Kevin and Kim Murphy.  Kevin works with Geoff in the RSO office, and the dinner included most of the folks who see to the Embassy's security.  Geoff signed us up to bring dressing/stuffing, and Geoff made two delicious kinds; one was whole grain bread based with sausage, apples, and cranberries, and the other was a more traditional Southern style cornbread based one with celery and onion (which he did just to make me happy).  Both were delicious, but the Southern one seemed to be the more popular choice (I knew it would be).  In addition to the dressing, we had ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, salad, and green bean casserole.  It was delicious!  Before we left (with no-nap Liam who actually behaved relatively well, considering) Kevin and Kim gave Liam two gifts, a Memory game and his very first sled.  Geoff and I can't wait to test it out!

Christmas Eve we hosted our friends the Saxtons for a small Christmas dinner: ham, roasted potatoes, and sauteed green beans with bacon.  We mulled some wine and played some Christmas music, and it was a nice, simple way to enjoy our first Christmas Eve in Sarajevo.  Each kid got to open a gift...Lane got some playdough, and as Liam opened his Christmas PJs, I asked him, "What did you get?"  He answered with a slightly disappointed tone, "Laundry."  That brought the house down.

Just before going to bed, I heard the nearest Catholic church ringing its bells.  Despite Christmas Eve being the warmest day of the month, we still had snow on the ground, so I was able to enjoy a very picturesque view with a European church bell soundtrack before turning in.  It was a magical moment, for sure, and one I will hold in my heart forever.

Christmas morning, Geoff and I woke up before Liam (which hardly ever happens), and were able to take a couple of sips of coffee before the little guy was up and at 'em!  Below is a short video of his descent, continued obsession with seeing himself on camera, and discovery of presents (along with some photos of our morning).  After our gift opening session at home, we headed to the Saxtons for Christmas brunch and toy sharing before going to the Embassy to deliver some cookies to the guards who had to work on Christmas Day.  It was a great day, and all in all, I'd say our Christmas in Sarajevo was wondrous and fun-filled.  We hope yours was the same.

 Waiting to open the first gift...

 a book, which he had to look through immediately!

 Gift #2 = another book, which he requested that Mama read

 Some literary shirts: "King of all wild things" 

and "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."
(Our Santa seems to be a bit of a book nerd.)

 The BIG Santa gift--- Star Wars light sabres!

 Both boys were excited!

See--both boys love the light sabres!

 Dada's gift from Liam--a hand-painted apron "My Dad's a Chef!"

 a gift from GG and Grandpa

(and a light sabre)

 a handmade hat and scarf from our housekeeper, Vanja

(and a light sabre)

a gift from Mims and Baba

and finally the light sabres in action!

The Embassy Christmas party

The Embassy hosted a Christmas party for the kids on Saturday, December 8th.  Santa made an appearance, of course, but there were also crafts and games to entertain.  We drove to the party in the midst of snow (quite picturesque) and arrived right before Santa made his big entrance.  Then Santa began to call children by name to hand out their gifts.  Liam had to wait a bit for his turn, but he finally got to sit next to Santa and open his gift...a helicopter.

After the visit with Santa, I tried to convince Liam to decorate a cookie, but he got mad when I started to put icing on his chosen treat.  I had to scrape the icing off!  That boy doesn't know what he's missing!  Liam took his plain cookie toward the reindeer hat table, and we proceeded to make one of those before trying our luck at the cake walk.  I ended up winning the cake walk, but I was gracious enough to let Liam choose and eat the cupcake.

After some snacks, Geoff took a turn helping with the reindeer bowling game, and Liam even took a shot at knocking the pins down.  All and all, it was a great party, and Liam enjoyed himself immensely.

 Silliness

 Snack time

(Geoff's at the back, graciously helping to stand up and align the bowling pins for the kiddies.)

School Holiday Concert

On Friday, December 14th, Liam's school hosted a holiday concert and party.  Liam's class was to wear all white and bring a scarf.  The program was kept secret so the parents would be surprised.  It was a good idea, but Geoff and I were clued in to what Liam's class had in mind when he kept singing a song about a little snowman.

We showed up a few minutes early, but were forced to "sit" in the back, which turned to standing on chairs in the back once the show began.  As you can see from the video, people had NO qualms about blocking the view of people in the back.  Despite our obscured view, Liam found us in the crowd, got a little panicked, and got up to come see us.  Geoff was able to head him off (with a cookie) and got him to return to his seat, where he ate his cookie while the rest of the children sang.  It was cute.  They sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", "Jingle Bells" (in English and Bosnian), and the cute snowman song (which I will try to record later.  Liam does a very cute rendition).

After the concert, there was a buffet lunch, and then it was time to see Santa.  Liam didn't smile, but he did sit on Santa's lap to get his gift.  Liam was super excited to open his gift and got a new fire truck.  Afterward, Liam and I took Geoff back to work before heading home for nap.  Even as I type this, he is upstairs singing all his concert songs.  Perhaps next year he'll be better prepared to sing for an audience!


You can see Liam on the left hand side.  He's the one who gets up in the middle of the concert.  Geoff escorts him back to his chair with a cookie in hand.

 Our sad little snowman, wanting his mommy and daddy

 Mmm...cookie!

 Lots of singing by every child but Liam

 Solemn snowman

 Happy Snowman!

 Cheese!

 A gift from Santa

 What is it?

Cool, a firetruck!

Practicing Jingle Bells

I tried to get Liam on camera the night before his big concert at school.  Instead, he kept trying to view himself on camera as we were filming.

First big snow

Is there anything more magical than the first big snow of the season?  Not if you look at Liam's face in these pictures.  He was in heaven!

 Our pretty, snowy city

Despite the snow, laundry still must be done.

 Our apple and pear trees in the snow

 Happy boy

 Snow fight!

 Snow wrestling

Oh Christmas tree

On Sunday, we put up our faux Christmas tree.  We bought the tree last year in anticipation of being somewhere that wouldn't have fresh ones available.  It's different.  Pros--no sap on our hands while hanging lights, no stand to wrestle with, and no watering required.  Cons--no fun day of traipsing around looking for just the right tree and no wonderful smell.  That con outweighs all the pros!  Regardless, Liam loves it, and LOVED helping decorate this year.  We showed him all his ornaments, and he took one look at Geoff's little boy photo ornament (see below) and said, "That's Liam!"  They really DO favor each other, huh?

He's really getting it this time--he knows Christmas is coming, and he knows "Baby Jesus is not yet" (Liam's profound statement as we assembled our nativity set minus the key players).  It's really fun this year, and the likelihood of our having a white Christmas is pretty high! So even though we are far away from dear family, we are getting into the Christmas spirit, and Liam is loving every minute of it!

 Helping with the ornaments

 Little Geoff ornament that Liam thought was Liam

Playing with the jingle bell ornament

A Griswold Thanksgiving

For our Thanksgiving in the Balkans, we decided to rent a villa on the Croatian coast.  In the offseason, rates go WAY down and the daytime temperatures are still quite pleasant.  We convinced 3 other families to go in with us to make this a truly fun and magical holiday.  After much research, we decided on Brsecine Castle.  Go ahead, click on the website to see why this was our choice.  5 bedrooms (for the 9 adults and 4 kids), a pro kitchen for our Thanksgiving meal and all the seafood we wanted, and a harbor right our our front door all for an EXTREMELY reasonable price.  If it sounds too good to be true, that's because it was.  But I am getting ahead of myself...

We left Thursday morning for the 4 1/2 hour drive.  Now, some of you may know that since moving here, we have discovered that Liam gets car sick.  The problem is, Liam has developed an aversion to his dramamine.  It is torture to give it to him.  He gags and cries and it kills me everytime, but I always remind myself that the vomit is worse.  So, right before our trip, we go through the water-boarding routine, but this time, Liam gagged so much he threw up right then and there.  (Griswold sign #1) Geoff cleaned the carpet while I cleaned Liam and tried to get him to take more medicine by bribing him with chocolate milk (rookie mistake), then off we went.

Things went well for the first hour and a half.  Then Liam vomited (Griswold sign #2).  And you remember what I gave him before we left, right?  GROSS!!!!!  I did my best to catch some of the sick while simultaneously cleaning Liam and carseat FROM THE FRONT SEAT.  You see, we packed the Civic to its fullest, and I couldn't fit in the backseat.  Geoff finally found a pit stop where we could do a better cleaning job, rest for a bit, and get some juice laced with dramamine (see, I learned!  Smash up the stupid dramamine and stir it into his drink!  Ah Ha!).

We hit the road again, and this time, Liam fell asleep.  Thank goodness!  But I was still as nervous as a cat and had to keep turning my head every five seconds to make sure he wasn't vomiting in his sleep.  But all went well, and after 2 more quick stops for some local wine and produce, we found our villa...only no one was there to let us in.  (Griswold sign #3--why was I ignoring them?).  We were a bit early, so I told Geoff not to worry.  We parked the car, pulled out some snacks, and enjoyed our view.  And kept enjoying our view... and kept enjoying our view while checking our watches.  We switched to throwing rocks while checking our watches and trying to call Ramon, the landlord.  Nothing.

While throwing rocks, the Saxtons pulled up.  They aided in the checking of the watches and the calling/texting of Ramon.  Then the Blevinses drove up.  They joined our gang of watch-checkers and callers/texters.  Things were looking VERY bad when Ramon FINALLY responded.  He had no idea why his guy wasn't there to let us in and said he'd get right on it.  So we went back to throwing rocks, but this time we figured beer would be a delicious addition.  We were right!

All this time, I started noticing odd things...an unswept patio, a pile of dead flowers from some sort of social event...hmmmm.  It looked like no one had been there to prepare for our arrival.  Then Ramon's guy pulled up.  He opened the gate, and we entered the courtyard...from hell.  It was filthy.  As was the kitchen, where we discovered that not only was there NO OVEN FOR OUR THANKSGIVING MEAL, there was an old, dead squid in the fridge!

Wait, it gets better.  The only toilet on the main living level didn't work, and there was a pair of men's undies hanging in the shower.  There was no wi-fi as promised (so we could talk to family via Skype/FaceTime), and we found all kinds of wonderful toys for the kiddies...an unsecured air rifle,  a rusty axe, and used snorkels, all within a toddler's curious reach.

While Ramon's man ran around like mad, turning on hot water heaters and installing exterior lights and such, his lady friend pretended to push a mop around the bathrooms.  Geoff got Ramon on the phone and used his diplomatic skills to get Ramon to knock off 200 Euro for what we began to call our "villa"...high end camping.

Quite simply, we made the best of it, laughing about the hot water running out after 15 minutes (of showering or washing dishes, didn't matter), our fire-grilled turkey and fixings, and all the WEIRD stuff Ramon had hanging around his house.  The weather and views were simply breathtaking, and our meals turned out delicious despite our difficulties.  We even started toasting RAMOOOON!  The kids had a blast--the boats, endless supply of rocks, and warm sun were all they needed for entertainment, and there was even a halfway decent kayak, which the families took turns using.  It was a crazy, unforgettable holiday, and we loved (almost) every minute of it.

 Grilled oysters

 "Red Liam" and Isaiah

 Our Thanksgiving oven

(Geoff did an amazing job with the turkey!)

 Outside fun

 "Chunking" rocks

 Some of Ramon's weird stuff

 Our villa and dock

 And from across the harbor

 From the top of the hill

 Hilltop sunset views 1 and 2

Can you spot me sitting on the wall?  

I couldn't make the sunset climb due to Liam's napping, 

so I enjoyed the sunset from the wall corner nearest the water.